1.
Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets football
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The Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets football team represents the Georgia Institute of Technology in the sport of American football. The Yellow Jackets team competes in the Football Bowl Subdivision of the National Collegiate Athletic Association, Georgia Tech has fielded a football team since 1892 and has an all-time record of 700–471–43. The Yellow Jackets play in Bobby Dodd Stadium at Historic Grant Field in Atlanta, Georgia, the Yellow Jackets have won four Division I-A college football national championships and fifteen conference titles. A number of collegiate and professional football players once played for Tech. The school has 48 first-team All-Americans and over 150 alumni who have played in the NFL, among the most lauded and most notable players the school has produced are Calvin Johnson, Demaryius Thomas, Keith Brooking, Joe Hamilton, Joe Guyon, and Billy Shaw. In addition to its players, Techs football program has been noted for its coaches and its, in many cases bizarre traditions and game finishes. Among the teams coaches are John Heisman, for whom the Heisman Trophy is named, and Bobby Dodd, for whom the Bobby Dodd Coach of the Year Award. Heisman led the team to the game in American football history. Dodd also led the Jackets on their longest winning streak against the University of Georgia, Tech began its football program with several students forming a loose-knit troop of footballers called the Blacksmiths. On November 5,1892, Tech played its first football game against Mercer University, the team lost to Mercer 12–6 in Macon, Georgia. Tech played two games during their first season and lost both of them for a season record of 0–3. Discouraged by these results, the Blacksmiths sought a coach to improve their record, leonard Wood, an Army officer and Atlantan, heard of Techs football struggles and volunteered to player-coach the team. Over the span of 1892–1903, Tech only won 8 games, tied in 5, in 1893, Tech played against the University of Georgia for the first time. Tech defeated Georgia 28–6 for the schools first-ever victory, the angry Georgia fans threw stones and other debris at the Tech players during and after the game. The poor treatment of the Blacksmiths by the Georgia faithful gave birth to the now known as Clean. In 1902, Jesse Thrash was the teams first All-Southern selection and he began the season as a sub and closed it as the undisputed star of the Tech team. Oliver Jones Huie was selected by Ga Techs athletic association to coach the team for the 1903 season when the team won 3. A professional coach was desperately needed if Tech wished to build a competitive football program
2.
College football
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It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. No minor league farm organizations exist in American football and it is in college football where a players performance directly impacts his chances of playing professional football. The best collegiate players will declare for the professional draft after 3 to 4 years of collegiate competition. Those not selected can still attempt to land an NFL roster spot as a free agent. Even after the emergence of the professional National Football League, college football remained extremely popular throughout the U. S, in many cases, college stadiums employ bench-style seating, as opposed to individual seats with backs and arm rests. This allows them to more fans in a given amount of space than the typical professional stadium. College athletes, unlike players in the NFL, are not permitted by the NCAA to be paid salaries, colleges are only allowed to provide non-monetary compensation such as athletic scholarships that provide for tuition, housing, and books. Modern North American football has its origins in various games, all known as football, by the 1840s, students at Rugby School were playing a game in which players were able to pick up the ball and run with it, a sport later known as Rugby football. The game was taken to Canada by British soldiers stationed there and was soon being played at Canadian colleges, the first documented gridiron football match was a game played at University College, a college of the University of Toronto, November 9,1861. One of the participants in the game involving University of Toronto students was William Mulock, a football club was formed at the university soon afterward, although its rules of play at this stage are unclear. In 1864, at Trinity College, also a college of the University of Toronto, F. Barlow Cumberland, modern Canadian football is widely regarded as having originated with a game played in Montreal, in 1865, when British Army officers played local civilians. The game gradually gained a following, and the Montreal Football Club was formed in 1868, early games appear to have had much in common with the traditional mob football played in England. The games remained largely unorganized until the 19th century, when games of football began to be played on college campuses. Each school played its own variety of football, Princeton University students played a game called ballown as early as 1820. A Harvard tradition known as Bloody Monday began in 1827, which consisted of a mass ballgame between the freshman and sophomore classes, in 1860, both the town police and the college authorities agreed the Bloody Monday had to go. The Harvard students responded by going into mourning for a figure called Football Fightum. The authorities held firm and it was a dozen years before football was again played at Harvard. Dartmouth played its own version called Old division football, the rules of which were first published in 1871, all of these games, and others, shared certain commonalities
3.
Dan McGugin
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Daniel Earle McGugin was an American football player and coach, as well as a lawyer. He served as the football coach at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee from 1904 to 1917 and again from 1919 to 1934. He is the winningest head coach in the history of the university, McGugin was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as a coach in 1951 as part of its inaugural class. Zipp Newman once wrote “I believe Dan McGugin would have gone down in history as the greatest of all coaches had he given all of his time to coaching. He was a great play-maker, but football was a sport for the beloved McGugin and law was his profession. ”McGugin was born in July 1879 on a farm near Tingley and he was the son of Benjamin Franklin McGugin and Melissa McGugin. He was of Scottish and Irish descent, McGugin saw the baton twirling skills of W. W. Wharton in Tingley for a Sunday evening church service one day in 1896 and was intrigued. Wharton, Drake Universitys first football coach, suggested he play football instead, come to Drake University, Wharton suggested, and well make you as fine a tackle as there is. McGugin enrolled at Drake University and received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1901 and he played football at Drake for two years at the guard and tackle positions and was considered one of the best players that Drake ever had. After one victory he purchased a small cannon and fired it at regular fifteen-minute intervals, nodding politely to neighbors Sabbath complaints. After graduating from Drake, McGugin enrolled in law school at the University of Michigan, while there, McGugin played college football for Fielding H. Yost. He was a player on Michigans Point-a-Minute teams that outscored their opponents,1,211 to 12 in 1901 and 1902, as a guard he is careful yet nervy. He gets the jump on his opponents and keeps the advantage, although a hard player he goes into each scrimmage with as much composure as if he were walking along the campus. McGugin, although good in every department of his position, has two qualities that are pre-eminent, namely, making interference and opening holes, heston has been especially fortunate this year in having a good interference, and part of that interference has been McGugin. McGugin was the football coach for the Vanderbilt Commodores of Vanderbilt University from 1904 to 1917. During his tenures, the Vanderbilt Commodores compiled a 197–55–19 record, had a.762 winning percentage, and won 11 conference titles. He had numerous intersectional triumphs, defeating the Carlisle Indians in 1906, and tying the Navy Midshipmen in 1907, the Yale Bulldogs in 1910, McGugin used his mentor Yosts short punt formation. In his first career game, McGugins team defeated Mississippi A&M and he went on to win his next two games by 60 points as well. He remains the only coach in NCAA history to win his first three games by 60 points and he also won each of his first 11 games by more than 20 points
4.
1906 Vanderbilt Commodores football team
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The 1906 Vanderbilt Commodores football team represented Vanderbilt University during the 1906 Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association football season. The teams head coach was Dan McGugin, who served his third season in that capacity, the 1906 Vanderbilt team had one of the best seasons in the schools history, outscoring opponents 278–16. Innis Brown rated the 1906 team as the best the South ever had, Vanderbilt won all of its home games, finishing the season on a 22-game home win streak. Their only loss came on the road to western power Michigan, 10–4, seven of the Commodores eight wins came by shutout – only two teams scored on them all season. Several teams failed to gain a single first down against the Commodores, the team most notably defeated northern power Carlisle by a single Bob Blake field goal 4–0. Back Owsley Manier was selected third-team All-America by Walter Camp, the Souths first, notable losses from the 1905 team included Bachelor of Ugliness Ed Hamilton, captain Innis Brown, and quarterback Frank Kyle. At the end of 1905 football looked about to be abolished due to all of the violence during games. Football was a sport that had degenerated into dangerous tactics such as, the wedge, punching, kicking, piling-on. Almost any violent behavior was allowed, fatalities and injuries mounted during the 1905 season. As a result, the 1906 season was played under a new set of rules, the rules governing intercollegiate football were changed to promote a more open and less dangerous style of play. In a 28–0 win over Kentucky State College to open the season, G. A. Hall had a 33-yard punt return for a touchdown. The Commodores were penalized several times, Kentucky never had a first down and had to punt after second down. The starting lineup was, Stone, Pritchard, King, Wynne, Sherrill, E. Noel, like McGugin, Mississippis coach Thomas S. Hammond was a Michigan alumnus. One account reads, whatever hopes the spectators had of seeing a close, the stars of the contest were Dan Blake and Honus Craig. Mississippi failed to gain a single first down, umpire Henry D. Phillips kicked Joe Pritchard out of the contest for roughing. The starting lineup was, V. Blake, E. Noel, McLain, Stone, Chorn, Pritchard, Blake, Costen, D. Blake, Craig, Manier. The only loss of the year for the Alabama Crimson Tide was its biggest ever loss to Vanderbilt, seven of Alabamas regular players were out with injuries. Vanderbilt executed several onside kicks from scrimmage, Owsley Manier scored five touchdowns as, the back field frequently went twenty-five or thirty yards over the line
5.
Josh Cody
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Joshua Crittenden Cody was an American college athlete, head coach, and athletics director. Cody was a native of Tennessee and an alumnus of Vanderbilt University, as a versatile tackle on the football team, he was a three-time All-American. In 1969, Cody was named by the Football Writers Association of America to the 1869–1918 Early Era All-American Team and he was inducted as a player into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1970. He assisted the likes of Dan McGugin and Ray Morrison, Josh Cody was born in Franklin, Tennessee, on June 11,1892, to James Wadkins Cody, a painter, and Sarah Elizabeth Crittenden. He was raised in Franklin and attended Battle Ground Academy, Cody first played three seasons at Bethel College, including the 105–0 loss to Vanderbilt in 1912. In 1914, at the age of 22, he enrolled at Vanderbilt University and was a member of the football, basketball, baseball, one source called Cody, the interference-smashingest, goal-cageingest, home-run knockingest, super-athlete in all Dixie. He was unbelievably skilled and nimble for a big man in basketball, Cody played for legendary coach Dan McGugins football team as an offensive and defensive tackle, but was versatile enough to play quarterback, running back, and kicker at times. Fuzzy Woodruff described Cody as a kicker and a tower of strength on offense. He was a large player at some 6 feet 4 inches. McGugin later selected him as one of the six best players he ever coached and he was known as a sure tackler, and fierce blocker, who helped the Commodores score 1,099 points in thirty-five games. Vanderbilt was 23–9–1 in his four seasons, including 21–3–3 in his three years. Cody was selected to at least one All-Southern team every year he played, journalist Ralph McGill, once a teammate of Codys, said, He was a great big fellow and one of the most seriously dedicated fellows Ive ever met. He was a boy and he didnt have any polish but he was very honest. He didnt have scholarship—we had none in those days— but he had a real job and he literally cleaned the gymnasium every day, cleaned up the locker rooms and the showers, and tended to the coal furnace after practice. He was a big man, squarely built, quiet, almost shy and he practiced long hours to place kick and became the teams place kicker. He wasnt fast, but he was fast for a big man and he didnt like to wear pads. He got a hold of an old quilt and sewed it to the shoulders of the jersey, in his second game, a 23–3 loss to Michigan in Ann Arbor, Cody converted a 45-yard drop kick field goal. At one point he also fell on Michigans Tommy Hughitt while both dove after a fumble, though the referees did not call roughing, Michigan was bitter about the lack of a call throughout the game, and shortly after even threatened to end the contest between the two schools
6.
Field goal
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A field goal is a means of scoring in American football and Canadian football. To score a goal the team in possession of the ball must place kick, or drop kick. The vast majority of goals, in both codes, are placed kicked. Drop kicked field goals were common in the days of Gridiron football but are almost never done in modern times. In most leagues, a field goal awards three points. A field goal may also be scored through a fair catch kick, since a field goal is worth only three points, as opposed to a touchdown, which is worth six points, it is usually only attempted in specific situations. The goal structure consists of a crossbar suspended 10 feet above the ground. In American football the goals are centered on each end line, in the first half, there is enough time remaining to execute only one more play. In the second half, there is time remaining to execute only one more play. The game is in overtime, and a FG is the quickest, easiest, even under ideal conditions, the best professional kickers historically had difficulty making kicks longer than 50 yards consistently. If a team not to attempt a field goal on their last down. A punt cannot score any points in American football unless the team touches the ball first and the kicking team recovers it. The longest field goal kick in NFL history is 64 yards, the previous record was 63, originally set by Tom Dempsey and then matched by Jason Elam, Sebastian Janikowski, and David Akers. High school, college and most professional football leagues offer only a three-point field goal, however, NFL Europe encouraged long field goals of 50 yards or more by making those worth four points instead of three, a rule since adopted by the Stars Football League. Similarly, the sport of football sought to repopularize the drop kick by making that worth four points, it failed. The overall field goal percentage during the 2010 NFL season was 82.3, in comparison, Jan Stenerud, one of only two pure kickers in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, had a career field goal percentage of 66.8 from 1967 to 1985. The holder is usually the teams punter or backup quarterback, instead of the regular center, a team may have a dedicated long snapper trained especially to snap the ball on placekick attempts and punts. The holder usually lines up seven to eight yards behind the line of scrimmage, upon receiving the snap, the holder holds the ball against the ground vertically, with the stitches away from the kicker
7.
Gil Reese
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David Argillus Gil Reese nicknamed The Tupelo Flash was an American football, basketball, and baseball player for the Vanderbilt Commodores of Vanderbilt University. He was captain of all three his senior year, the first to do so at Vanderbilt, Gil was the brother of baseball player Andy Reese, playing with him on the Florence Independents in Alabama. Gil was born on January 14,1901 in Tupelo, Mississippi, Reese attended Vanderbilt University in Nashville. He was a member of the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity, Reese received the Bachelor of Ugliness his senior year. Reese played for coach Dan McGugins Vanderbilt Commodores football teams from 1922 to 1925, Gil was a prominent member of Commodores teams that compiled a win-loss-tie record of 26–5–3 over his four seasons, including two Southern Conference titles. Gil weighed 155 pounds and wore number 11 and he was a main focus of backfield coach and former Vanderbilt great Lewie Hardage ever since his first year. I played against Reese three years said Billy Harkness, former Tennessee Volunteers quarterback and captain of its 1926 team and it was said Reese could run 100 yards in 10.1 seconds. In 1934, Reese was selected for Vanderbilts all-time football team and his freshman season opened with a 38 to 0 triumph over Middle Tennessee State, The game being featured by the brilliant running of Gil Reese. In his second game, against Henderson-Brown, Reese gave an otherwise lethargic first half from the Commodores its lone spark and their only points of the half came on a 70-yard touchdown run in the first quarter, in which Reese darted through the entire Henderson-Brown defense. Vanderbilt found its stride in the half, scoring 26 points. Though displaying skill, he was contained by the Wolverines, forcing his movement sideways, Reese once side stepped his way through half the Michigan team for eight yards. Walter Camp was impressed by Reeses punt returns that day, the following game against Texas at the Texas State Fair saw the Commodores win 20 to 10. Reese was the widely accepted player of the game, scoring all three of Vanderbilts touchdowns, breaking tackles and sprinting past the Texas defense. After a fumble recovery by Hek Wakefield at the 25-yard line, the second score came later after captain Jess Neely broke a streak of lethargic offense, running back a 30-yard punt return. Starting from the 40-yard line, this drive was credited to Reese, in the second half, Neely hit Lynn Bomar on a long pass that went twenty-three yards in the air, with Bomar running for some twenty more and down close to the goal. Reese ran it in on the play, and the try was good. Reese also got an interception against Texas, in the Kentucky game, Reese was sent in for Freddie Meiers to close out the game. He had one run of 35 yards, failing to score because of Kentuckys Brewer just getting his feet from behind, the final week against Sewanee saw Vanderbilt win 26 to 0
8.
Grantland Rice
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Henry Grantland Rice was an early 20th-century American sportswriter known for his elegant prose. His writing was published in newspapers around the country and broadcast on the radio, Grantland Rice was born in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, the son of Bolling Hendon Rice, a cotton dealer, and his wife, Mary Beulah Rice. His grandfather Major H. W. Rice was a Confederate veteran of the Civil War, on the football team, he lettered in the year of 1899 as an end and averaged two injuries a year. On the baseball team, he was captain in 1901, Vanderbilt coach Dan McGugin in Spaldings Football Guides summation of the season in the SIAA wrote, The standing. First, Vanderbilt, second, Sewanee, a mighty good second, Rice coached the 1908 Vanderbilt baseball team. After taking early jobs with the Atlanta Journal and the Cleveland News, the job at the Tennessean was given to him by former Sewanee Tigers coach Billy Suter, who coached baseball teams against which Rice played while at Vanderbilt. Afterwards he obtained a series of jobs with major newspapers in the Northeastern United States. In 1914 he began his Sportlight column in the New York Tribune and he also provided monthly Grantland Rice Sportlights as part of Paramount newsreels from 1925–1954. In dramatic lore they are known as famine, pestilence, destruction and their real names are, Stuhldreher, Miller, Crowley and Layden. The passage added great import to the event described and elevated it to a level far beyond that of a football game. He became even better known after his columns were nationally syndicated beginning in 1930 and he and his writing are among the reasons that the 1920s in the United States are sometimes referred to as the Golden Age of Sports. Rices all-time All-America backfield was Jim Thorpe, Red Grange, Ken Strong and his sense of honor can be seen in his own actions. Before leaving for service in World War I, he entrusted his entire fortune, about $75,000, on his return from the war, Rice discovered that his friend had lost all the money in bad investments, and then had committed suicide. Rice accepted the blame for putting “that much temptation” in his friends way, Rice then made monthly contributions to the man’s widow throughout his life. Appleton and Company of New York, Rice married Fannie Katherine Hollis on April 11,1906, they had one child, the actress Florence Rice. Rice died at the age 73 on July 13,1954 and he is interred at Woodlawn Cemetery in The Bronx, New York City. For when the One Great Scorer comes To mark against your name, He writes – not that you won or lost – But how you played the Game. The loafer has no come-back and the quitter no reply, When the Anvil Chorus echoes, as it will, against the sky, But there’s one quick answer ready that will wrap them in a hood, Make good
9.
1917 Georgia Tech Golden Tornado football team
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The 1917 Georgia Tech Golden Tornado football team represented the Georgia Institute of Technology in American football during the 1917 Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association football season. The Golden Tornado, coached by John Heisman in his 14th year as coach, compiled a 9–0 record. Heisman considered the 1917 team his best, and for years it was considered the greatest football team the South had ever produced. The backfield of Albert Hill, Everett Strupper, Joe Guyon, and Judy Harlan led the Golden Tornado, and all four rushed for more than 100 yards in a 48–0 victory over Tulane. During the regular season Georgia Tech defeated strong opponents by large margins, Techs 83–0 victory over Vanderbilt is the worst loss in Vanderbilt history, and its 63–0 defeat of Washington & Lee was the worst loss in W&L history at the time. Tech finished the season by defeating Auburn 68–7, clinching the conference title, Davidson and Auburn were the only teams to score points against Georgia Tech. Because of the American entry into World War I in April, however, Georgia Tech had an increasing enrollment and bright prospects for its football team after its undefeated 1916 season. Losses from the previous seasons team included guard Bob Lang and fullback Tommy Spence, in 1917 football used a one-platoon system, in which players played both offense and defense. Fifteen of the 21 players on the 1917 roster were from the state of Georgia, the teams captain was tackle Walker Big Six Carpenter. Its renowned backfield consisted of quarterback Al Hill, halfback Everett Strupper, halfback Joe Guyon, Coach John Heismans swift backfield used the pre-snap movement of his jump shift offense, and Al Hill led the team in carries. Ev Strupper, arguably the best of the four, was deaf, because of his deafness. When Strupe tried out for the team, he noticed that the quarterback shouted the signals every time he was to carry the ball, realizing that the loud signals would be a tip-off to the opposition, Strupper told Heisman, Coach, those loud signals are absolutely unnecessary. You see when sickness in my kid days brought on this deafness my folks gave me the best instructors obtainable to teach me lip-reading, Heisman recalled how Strupper overcame his deafness, He couldnt hear anything but a regular shout. But he could read your lips like a flash, no lad that ever stepped on a football field had keener eyes than Everett had. The enemy found this out the minute he began looking for openings through which to run the ball. Joe Guyon, the teams best passer, was a Chippewa Indian who was born on the White Earth Indian Reservation, his brother, Guyon had played for Pop Warner at Carlisle, and had to sit out the 1916 season in accordance with conference transfer rules. He ran through opponents, in contrast to Struppers dodging style, Judy Harlan said about Guyon, Once in a while the Indian would come out in Joe, such as the nights Heisman gave us a white football and had us working out under the lights. Thats when Guyon would give out the blood curdling war whoops, the Golden Tornado opened its season on September 29 with a doubleheader in three inches of mud
10.
Everett Strupper
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George Everett Strupper, Jr. known variously as Ev or Strup or Stroop was an American football player. He played halfback for Georgia Tech from 1915 to 1917, Strupper overcame deafness resulting from a childhood illness and was selected as an All-American in 1917. During Struppers three years playing for Georgia Tech, the compiled a record of 24–0–2 and outscored its opponents by a combined score of 1,135 to 61. In Georgia Techs record-setting 222–0 win over Cumberland College in 1916, for many years,1917 Georgia Tech was considered the greatest football team the South ever produced. Strupper starred as part of a renowned backfield including also Joe Guyon, Judy Harlan, Strupper and teammate Walker Carpenter were the first players from the Deep South selected for an All-America first team. Sportswriter Morgan Blake called Strupper probably the greatest running half-back the South has known, bernie McCarty writes Strupper ranks among the greatest broken-field gallopers in Southern football history. And he caught and threw passes, returned kicks, blocked well and he was posthumously inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1972 and the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame in 1974. Strupper was born in Columbus, Georgia, in 1896 and his parents, G. Everett Strupper, Sr. and Bessie H. Strupper, were both Georgia natives. As of 1910, his father was employed as a manager at an oil company. Stupper attended Riverside Military Academy in Gainesville, Georgia and he was the star of the schools football team in 1913, and is a member of the schools sports hall of fame. Strupper enrolled at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta in 1914, during his freshman year, Strupper became a member of the Georgia Phi chapter of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon Fraternity. He was an athlete competing for Georgia Tech in basketball, football. In 1914, Strupper played for the football team at Georgia Tech. He then played halfback for Georgia Techs varsity football teams head coach John Heisman from 1915 to 1917. Strupper was deaf, and because of his deafness, he called the signals instead of the teams quarterback, Strupper was a small man, with his height being stated in varying accounts to be between five-feet seven inches and five-feet, ten inches. His coach John Heisman later wrote that Strupper was but 5 feet 7 inches in height and he was sometimes known as little Everett Strupper. Georgia Tech never lost a game in which Strupper played, compiling three consecutive undefeated seasons from 1915 to 1917, during Struppers three years playing for Georgia Tech, the team compiled a record of 24–0–2. Only two teams managed a tie – the University of Georgia in 1915 and Washington & Lee in 1916, in those 26 games, Georgia Tech outscored its opponents by a combined score of 1,135 to 61
